Dead Sea Scrolls come alive at Museum of Science

Friday

May 24, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 24, 2013 at 4:12 AM

The Land of Milk and Honey has come alive at the Museum of Science through the presence of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a wealth of archeological treasures in a monumental exhibition: "Dead Sea Scrolls: Life in Ancient Times."

Chris Bergeron/DAILY NEWS STAFF

The Land of Milk and Honey has come alive in the Museum of Science through the presence of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a wealth of archeological treasures in a monumental exhibition.

Just opened, "Dead Sea Scrolls: Life in Ancient Times,'' carries visitors through the complex history of the Holy Land through more than 600 rare objects that cast light on the lives of commoners and kings, herdsmen and prophets.

Entering the exhibit, they’ll hear a woman’s tremulous voice intone in Hebrew the Lord's command to Abraham: "Go forth from the land of your kinfolk and from your father's house to a land I will show you.''

Visitors will see 20 rare fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a 3-ton stone from Jerusalem's Western Wall, dozens of 2,000-year-old jars large enough to serve a tailgate party and ossuaries inscribed with the names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and much more.

As if visiting Israel in the age of King David, they can inspect coins and cult figures, an actual jar in which scrolls were discovered and iron arrowheads from Sennacherib's victory over Lachist more than 2,700 years ago.

Created by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, "Dead Sea Scrolls'' brings archeology, history and the power of faith together into a one-of-a-kind exhibit.

Opening the show, curator Risa Levitt Kohn said, "The land of Israel has always been a cultural crossroads'' and became "a nation and also the fount of a new faith that has had an extraordinary impact down to our own age.''

She expressed hope the exhibit would "transport visitors not just to another place but 2,000 years ago'' where they could "look at objects the inhabitants left behind and reconstruct their world.''

"I hope they see that these artifacts can be more than just objects. They can use them to create a context to better understand that age,'' said Levitt Kohn.

Remarkably ambitious, "Dead Sea Scrolls’’ recreates the atmosphere of the ancient world through dramatic photos of the Judean desert, the rock fortress at Masada and the famous sea itself.

Following a timeline along the floor, visitors can explore more than 1,000 years of history through artifacts as varied as the people who lived in the region.

Drawn from the collections of the Israeli National Treasures, the exhibit was produced by Discovery Times Square and the Franklin Institute.

Admission to the exhibit is through a timed ticket only and will include a separate ticket for entrance to the general Exhibit Halls that can be used within six months.

Levitt Kohn, professor of Hebrew Bible and Judaism at San Diego State University, and Deborah Ben Ami, curator of the Iron Age collection at the IAA, organized the exhibition.

The presentation of scroll fragments elevates this exhibition from the merely extraordinary to the sublime.

Discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin searching for lost goats in a cave along the shore of the Dead Sea, the 972 remarkably well-preserved scrolls include the earliest surviving manuscripts of works later incorporated into the Hebrew Bible canon.

Levitt Kohn said the discovery and translation of the scrolls has helped scholars better understand "the People of the Book and their sibling religions'' as those beliefs spread through the ancient Near East.

"These 2,000-year-old parchments and scraps of parchments demonstrate that in the days of Hellenic and Roman control of Judah and the Land of Israel, the Hebrew Bible was already a highly regarded collection of writings upon which the people of Israel relied to understand their history and relationship with God,'' she said.

Levitt Kohn called the show "an apolitical exhibit that doesn’t get into modern politics.’’

"It would be a mistake to think the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ is just for people who are religious. It’s really a show about archaeology, history and life in the ancient world,’’ she said.

In a stately setting, the scrolls fragments - some that have never been shown - are displayed in two sets of 10 which change every three months in a 25-foot diameter Communal Scroll Table that has a separate chamber for each scroll. Each scroll is presented along with a full English translation, a large high-resolution image and explanation of its significance.

For example, a visitor can view an original Hebrew translation into Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, of segments of the Book of Job or a fragment from the Book of Isaiah, recording the Lord's wrath, "He has stretched out his hand over the sea, to shake the kingdom.''

Viewing the treasures of the "Dead Sea Scrolls,’’ many visitors will feel that mighty presence.